


Psychomachia

by Prince_Pondincherry



Category: Heretical Edge - Cerulean
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Diverges in Arc 23: Sharkhunt, Gen, Spoilers for 27-03
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-21
Updated: 2018-09-21
Packaged: 2019-07-15 00:44:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16051958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Prince_Pondincherry/pseuds/Prince_Pondincherry
Summary: Tabbris has been keeping Flick from being possessed by the Seosten for a long time, but she can't do it at every moment of every day. This is what may have happened if she dropped the ball at just the wrong time.





	1. Porkachu's New Friend

**Author's Note:**

> Starting on Monday night, January 29 (the beginning of Arc 23: Sharkhunt), this is a fic exploring an alternate way events could have gone. It will feature copious amounts of Best Fallen Angel. Which of course means MAJOR SPOILERS FOR ARC 27, in addition to the obvious spoilers from Arc 23 and the subsequent couple arcs if I get that far. Of note: it’s NOT a single point-of-divergence fic, as will become clear quite shortly. As usual, I will try to stay as close to canon characterizations as possible, and ideally, the only changes to canon will be the ones I specifically made for a good reason.
> 
> Feel free to suggest things for the future of the story for me to steal. I’ve got some ideas of my own, but part of why I chose this divergence was because of how many interesting options there were for a future story, and I’m kind of overwhelmed with options at this point. Plus I’m worried I might miss a cool opportunity.

Tabbris grabbed onto a branch sticking out of a fallen tree and used it to pull herself up and over the trunk. She carefully slid down the other side. When her feet were planted solidly on the ground, she turned to face the glowing rock she had placed on the trunk. She eyed the lumpy, dirt-caked object for a second, squinting against the light it gave off, before reaching out and grabbing it.  _You’re not as cool as Herbie, but you’ll do._  She turned to continue, then paused as a feeling of oddness washed over her. She shrugged it off, reminding herself that it was probably something to do with being in her own body for once, and continued walking into the jungle, her glowing rock held up to light up the area around her. She anxiously glanced back and forth, trying to see everywhere the light touched, and strained her eyes to peer into the darkness beyond, where the thick jungle blocked the light of the moon and stars, leaving everything inside pitch black.  
  
With only her own body, Tabbris felt horribly limited and exposed. When she first entered the jungle, she’d had to keep reminding herself that she could turn her head whenever she wanted to try to see more, but now she couldn’t get herself to stop doing it. She was always afraid that when she looked away, one of the Alters living in the forest would sneak up on her now that she didn’t have an item-sense to notice them coming. And she was all on her own, vulnerable, with nobody to keep her safe from the monsters. If she had to, she could always possess anything that attacked her, but only if she noticed before it got her. And then how would she get back to Flick?  
  
 _No, this was a terrible idea. I shouldn’t have stayed out here all by myself. Something’s gonna get me._  But Avalon had still been in the room the last time Flick left it, and Tabbris had just known that she had to get out before Flick went to the Atherby Camp and had the Seosten detection spell used on her. She didn’t even want to imagine what would happen if she was discovered. She had to stay hidden; Miss Larissa and Mama had both been clear on that.  
  
But it sucked. The only chance Tabbris had had to sneak off was when Flick was on the path to the beach waiting for her girlfriends to show up. She’d had to get far enough away that Flick wouldn’t notice her when the minor suggestion she left behind that Flick shouldn’t pay attention to the item sense wore off. Then, she had decided that the safest place for her out here was probably with Choo, where the privacy generator would keep away both Alters and nosy Heretics-in-training.  
  
But now, jumping scared at each of the many sounds in the scary jungle, Tabbris was having second thoughts.  _Maybe I should have just stayed at the edge of the jungle. That would have been fine. Nobody would notice me there, and I’d be close enough to the school for all the Alters to stay away. Yeah, that’s a good idea. I’ll go do that now._  Tabbris stopped walking and turned around, but before she took a step, she told herself,  _No, I’m almost there. That’s just the privacy generator talking. I just have to push through and it will be fine._  Too bad that was a lie. Sure, the privacy generator was making it much worse, but she actually was terrified enough that she was literally shaking with fear. That didn’t mean she agreed with what the privacy generator was making her think. She turned back around and continued onward, keeping an eye out for predators.  
  
Then she tripped on a tree root and face-planted into the ground, her glowing rock disappearing into a bush a couple of feet away. She let out a soft gasp as the air was forced out of her lungs.  _Owwwwww. Right, I can’t just stop paying attention to what my legs are doing. Darn it._  She rolled over onto her back and sat up, bringing her hands up to her face to feel the damage. Her mouth hurt. Her nose hurt too, but luckily it wasn’t broken. She also had a cut on her forehead, and as she brought her hand down, there was blood all over her fingers.  _Right. Head wounds bleed a lot. It’s not fair that this body doesn’t regenerate. I’d better get to Choo before something smells the blood and eats me._  Not wanting to waste time rummaging through the bush looking for her original glowing rock, Tabbris picked up the stick that had hurt her chest when she fell on it and quickly did the spell to make it light up. Luckily, it wasn’t too much farther to the clearing Choo lived in, and she made it there before too much time had passed.  
  
The sound of a growl came out of a rustling bush. Tabbris turned to look at it and saw little flashes of light from the darkness beneath the leaves. She could hear the crackling of sparks along with the continued growl. She had found the little Jekern she was looking for, but in the moment, she couldn’t help but remember that Jekern were dangerous. Unlike Flick and the others, Tabbris didn’t have a treat or someone Choo already knew to introduce her to him. She pushed aside her fear as best she could and reminded herself that the privacy generator was still trying to get her to leave, so her fear was somewhat irrational. “H-hi,” she squeaked out. Clearing her throat, she tried again in as soothing a voice as she could make. “Hello, Choo. I’m Tabbris. I-I’m sorry, I don’t have any treats for you. But I promise I don’t want to hurt you. I know Flick and Shiori. I wanted to meet you.” The growling stopped, and Tabbris could see the leaves move a little as the little Jekern stuck his snout out of the underbrush and took a cautious look at her. “I just need to go attune myself to the privacy generator so it stops making me want to leave,” she said. Then, moving slowly so she wouldn’t startle Choo, she went to grab the privacy generator out of the hollow in the tree where Avalon had stashed it. Holding the part that looked like a four-antennaed walkie-talkie, she held the dangling snowglobe up to one ear, then the other. Smoke came out of the three little smokestacks on the bottom and went into her ears. When she was done, most of her desire to get out of the jungle immediately was gone, leaving only the general low-level fear of discovery and harm she dealt with any time she was out in her own body.  
  
She put the device back exactly where she had gotten it and turned back around to find that Choo had come out of his hiding-bush. The small puppy-sized warthog thing had apparently decided she wasn’t too scary.  _Maybe he knows that the only people who deactivate the privacy generator are friends._  Choo was still clearly a little cautious of her, but that was okay; she was a little cautious of him too. She approached him slowly, and though he snorted little crackles of electricity as she approached, he didn’t back away. When she was close enough, she got down on her knees and reached out toward him. She knew that dogs liked to get a sniff of new people they met, and while Choo certainly wasn’t a dog, he acted very similar to one at times, and trying it couldn’t hurt.  
  
Sure enough, Choo took a couple cautious steps forward until his moist snout was pressed into her hand. He sniffed at it a bit. Then, he backed up a step and licked her. She giggled at the feeling of the moist tongue and the tingles of electricity that entered her hand where it touched her. Finally relaxing a little, Tabbris sat down on her heels. As Choo continued to lick her right hand, she stretched her left hand out to gently brush over his rough fur. She smiled as she felt the odd feeling of his coarse fur against her fingers. Sure, she could choose to experience as much of Flick’s senses as she wanted, but it still felt different touching Choo’s fur with her own skin.  
  
Choo started to wriggle a little, so she lifted her left hand, but he just snorted and forced himself into the gap beneath her right hand and the jungle floor until her hand was resting on his back. “What? Do you want me to scratch you?” Tabbris asked. She curled her fingers down and started scratching towards the rear of the little pig’s back. She kept doing that for about a minute as he made little grunts of pleasure. Then he got tired of it and backed up away from her hand. He eyed her for a few seconds before running at her and jumping into her lap. She reached around to grab his back as he looked up at her, putting his front two legs on her stomach. She tilted her head down to look at him, and they locked eyes for a couple of seconds before he jumped up and licked at the cut on her forehead.  
  
Tabbris laughed as she jerked her head back and caught the little pig in her lap. “I see how it is. You’ve caught the taste of my blood. Oh no, I’ve corrupted you! Shiori is going to hate me!” Then, she quieted down, looked off into the dark jungle, and meekly said, “Shiori  **is**  going to hate me. I’ve been possessing her girlfriend this whole time.” Looking back down at Choo, she could have sworn the little Jekern was giving her the stink-eye. “N-not that I was watching when they did anything yucky! I go to sleep any time they do anything private, I swear!” she blurted out, feeling slightly ridiculous for justifying herself to a baby Jekern. “Maybe it’s because you’re the only one besides Mommy who even knows who I am,” she said quietly. “Miss Larissa was supposed to come visit me, not get attacked by a Nocen.” She fell silent, feeling terrible that she felt so sad that Larissa had been attacked. Larissa was Sands and Scout’s mother, not hers.  
  
Choo might have been able to tell she needed to be distracted, or maybe he was just bored, but whatever the reason, he jumped off her lap and started running in circles around her. “What are you doing, you silly Jekern?” she asked, smiling at his antics. She played with Choo for half an hour, but it was late, and she eventually decided to find a place to curl up and go to sleep. First, she set up some alarm spells that would wake her in case Flick or her girlfriends visited Choo when they came back from the Atherby camp, or any Nocen or Heretics ignored the privacy generator and came near her. Then, she projected to Flick to check in and make sure she was safe. Sure enough, when Tabbris looked through Flick’s eyes, heard through her ears, and felt her surroundings with the item sense, she could see and hear and feel that she was in the Atherby camp, safe with her girlfriends, Gabriel Prosser, and other allies. They were practicing how to write the Atherby Seosten-expulsion spell, so it still wasn’t safe for Tabbris to return to Flick’s body. Tabbris took a few minutes to look through Flick's most recent memories and learn how to cast the spell herself, doing it now instead of waiting until she next returned to Flick in case the human was going to forget any of the details. Then she pulled her attention back to the jungle, where a drowsy Jekern was sitting in her lap.  
  
“Come on, let’s find a place for me to sleep,” Tabbris said softly, gently lifting Choo from her lap and standing him on the ground. She searched around until she found some comfortable vegetation to lay on. She wasn’t worried about insects bothering her. Before she had even entered the jungle, she had cast the insect-repellent spell Wyatt had used on that jungle hike with Flick and Koren on a small rock that was now in the zip pocket of her pant leg. Her standard-issue Seosten environment suit kept her at a nice comfortable temperature, and she had the cuddly body of the little Jekern to snuggle with, so even the constant jungle noises couldn’t keep her from sinking into a comfortable sleep.  
  


-

  
It was the feeling of wrongness that made Tabbris jolt awake several hours later. Her immediate thought was that it was because she wasn’t used to waking up in the jungle, but as the seconds passed and she woke up enough to fully comprehend what she was doing there, the sense of wrongness didn’t fade. It was still pitch-black in the jungle (except for the slight glow from where she had put her light-stick under a plant so it could act as a nightlight), so she hadn’t been woken by the dawn. None of her alert spells were triggered, and she couldn’t see any Alters or hear anything that sounded dangerous and nearby. Then, she realized what was wrong, and a sudden feeling of dread sat low in her belly. Flick had been possessed!


	2. Corruptor 1-02: Possession

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In a slight divergence from canon, the Seosten Lehahiah personally leads the team sent to silence Fahsteth. Meanwhile, Flick heads right into battle, not realizing her possession immunity is playing with a lightning-pig in the jungle back at Crossroads.

Lehahiah was having a bad night. The 183-year-old Seosten had been put in charge of the effort to silence the mercenary Fahsteth before he could let slip any information about their plans to the enemies of the Seosten Empire. He was well aware that the mercenary was incredibly dangerous, so he had requested a pack of Amaroks as well as a strike force of sentient Alters loyal to the Seosten to make certain that the mercenary would be killed. Essentially, his plan was similar to the standard doctrine for killing a Fomorian--assemble the force you expect to need, and then double it. Overkill was the only safe way to handle those deviously clever and powerful adversaries. The mercenary Fahsteth was not quite on their level, but he was several thousand years old and had many tricks and upgrades of his own. Lehahiah made sure not to underestimate him.  
  
Which was why he felt betrayed when his Amarok pack ran into Gabriel Prosser.  _I did everything right! This was supposed to work!_  But instead of succeeding quickly and easily, he found his efforts being foiled by one of the strongest opponents to the Seosten on Earth. He immediately called for backup, of course, but there honestly weren’t many Seosten assets on the planet that could stand up to Prosser in anything resembling a fair fight, so he wasn’t expecting any reinforcements. No, even though his job had just gotten infinitely harder, his duty required that he handle this himself. It was his duty that led him to make the poor-in-retrospect decision to take his dec in to silence the mercenary personally. He had sent the two were-birds under his command to stall the Heretic students who were trying to reach Fahsteth and taken the other eight Alters to deal with the mercenary.  
  
 _Maybe I should have ignored the Heretics and brought the full dec in here_ , he thought as he literally tuned out the pain of the Akheliosan kicking his host body across the room into a wall.  _Or better yet, I should have just given it up as lost as soon as Gabriel Prosser showed up. I knew one dec wasn’t enough._  Heedless of the pain his host was in, he forced him to his feet, but was too late to stop Fahsteth from stabbing him through the chest. He slumped to the floor along with the rest of his dead or dying soldiers.  _Damn. Have to bail out._  He was filled with dread as he realized just how terrible his current situation was, but he pushed it down so he could do what he had to. As his host died, Lehahiah ejected himself from the body. His ghostly form solidified just in time for him to be forced to boost himself and throw himself out of the way of a lightning-quick attack from the mercenary.  
  
“So one of you traitorous angels came after me in person, huh? That was a mistake.” So saying, the mercenary rushed forward at an absurd speed, swinging with his knife. But Lehahiah’s body was naturally more athletic than his host had been, and with his boost tuned to speed and defense, he was able to keep up with the mercenary’s attack over the course of the several seconds it took them to exchange scores of blows. Still, he couldn’t seem to hurt the mercenary either, and it was only a matter of time until he became too tired to maintain the boost any longer. Or worse, until Gabriel Prosser finished with the distraction and made his way there.  
  
He needed to try something other than fighting, but what? Fahsteth was far too strong for Lehahiah to control. He could still possess the mercenary just to get somewhere he couldn’t hurt him, but that was only a temporary situation, since Fahsteth would know he was there and be prepared to kill him as soon as he made himself vulnerable by emerging. And that was assuming the old mercenary hadn’t picked up any tricks that would let him exorcise a possessor. No, what he needed to do was retreat, but the Alter whose ability he’d used to get into the room was dead along with the rest of the dec. The obvious solution was to possess the purple-skinned, red-haired Alter Fahsteth had apparently hired to teleport him to safety. But he was locked in combat with Fahsteth, and as soon as he tried to position himself closer to the teleporter, the wily mercenary figured out his plan and moved to stop him.  
  
One particularly hard blow from the mercenary’s knee sent Lehahiah staggering backward, but rather than push the advantage, Fahsteth took a step back himself. “I don’t have time for this,” he declared with a scowl, exchanging the knife in his hand for two more from his belt. These new knives had a sheen of moisture on their edge.  _Poison._  Tanking hits was no longer an option for the Seosten. He shifted his boost more fully to speed and strength and prepared to fight again. As a relatively young Seosten in a middle-management position on this planet, Lehahiah rarely saw combat, and when he did, it was in situations that put him in little danger. In contrast, he was confident he couldn’t survive this fight, let alone win with enough time to pull out before Prosser arrived. He was terrified, moreso than he’d been since the time he’d been given memories of frontline combat against the Fomorians as part of his childhood education. Still, what other option did he have but to fight on? He  **had**  to get past Fahsteth to the teleporter.  
  
Lehahiah was standing with his back to the metal plate-covered door into the hallway, so he didn’t see whatever it was that caught Fahsteth’s eye. The mercenary was a consummate professional who had been alive as long as some of Lehahiah’s superiors, and his distraction lasted a bare fraction of a second, but Lehahiah took the opportunity when he saw it and rushed forward, putting his boost into strength just in time to kick the mercenary across the room and into the wall. The blow would hardly hurt him, of course, but it did give the Seosten enough time for a quick glance behind him to see what had distracted Fahsteth.  
  
The blond-haired Heretic girl behind him was already swinging her staff up at his head. He ducked underneath the blast of kinetic energy the staff unleashed and dove at her. He knew this girl was Felicity “Flick” Chambers, and he knew that Seosten older and far more powerful than himself had outright failed to possess the girl. He was a Seosten, how could he forget? But in the moment, his terror clouded his judgment, and all he could see her as was a way out. As his outstretched hand touched the girl’s ripped, bloody jacket, he concentrated on his possession power and found his viewpoint shifting as her senses became his own.  
  
 _Hey, what the hell? I thought I was immune to possession! Get out!_  Throwing her whole will into it, she tried to move her arms or legs, nod her head, or just do anything under her own volition, but he bent his will to suppressing her control over her own body. In the end, he was just too strong for her to resist. With the ease of long practice, he ignored her mental voice and quickly searched through her immediate memories until he saw that she had gotten in the room by using her Relukun-based wood merging power to travel through a thin strip of wood her girlfriend had made in the metal barrier with a power of her own. Throwing Flick's body that way, he activated her power, sending her through the wood and into the hallway on the other side.  
  
Avalon Sinclaire pulled her hand away from the metal plate she had been transforming into wood and blurted, “Flick! Are you okay? What...why are you back?”  
  
 _No! No, I’m not okay! There’s a Seosten piece of shit in my head!_  Lehahiah allowed Flick’s face to show the distress she was feeling while stopping her attempt to speak, to tell her girlfriend she had been possessed and ask for help. Instead, he made her say, “He...he slaughtered them.”  
  
Concerned, Avalon put her hands on Flick’s shoulders. “Slaughtered who?”  
  
“I...the team the Seosten sent to silence him.”  _Surely they’ve figured out that much, right?_  As much as he could speedily flip through and memorize all of his host’s memories, Lehahiah couldn’t take the time to examine them yet. It was much more important to make sure he mimicked her speech patterns and body language as best as he could, while hoping that any changes would be attributed to shock and fear at what she’d seen on the other side of the door. So he had to hope that the girls had figured out the obvious and that the idea of the Seosten silencing Fahsteth wasn’t a new one for them.  
  
Sure enough, Avalon didn’t react like he’d said something that was new to her. He continued, “It looked like he killed them really easily. I didn’t think rushing in by myself and getting killed was a good idea.” Taking a moment to direct his thoughts at his new host for the first time, he thought,  _That was stupid. If I wasn’t there he would have killed you. How are you not dead yet?_  
  
 _He’s a mercenary, and he had no reason to kill me! He should have been willing to help to spite you for betraying him!_  
  
“Then we’ll go in together,” Avalon said, a hard look on her face, as she returned her attention to her attempt to convert the metal into wood.  
  
“That won’t be necessary,” said a calm voice. Gabriel Prosser had just appeared a few feet down the hallway.  
  
 _How did he get in here? I thought this place was warded_ , thought Flick. Even if Lehahiah had wanted to reply, he was too busy making sure none of the sudden wave of fear he felt was transferred to his host body. Prosser had at least one emotion-sensing power. While Seostenic possession provided some measure of protection against such powers, allowing the Seosten to prevent their host’s true emotions from giving them away, it did require some concentration on the possessor’s part to do it right.  
  
Apparently some of his fear got through enough for his host to sense it.  _Hah, you **should**  be afraid. Gabriel is  **not**  going to be happy when he finds out about you. I can’t wait to see him actually angry with you._  
  
Adopting a condescending “tone” for his thought, Lehahiah replied,  _He’s not going to find out. The fear will fit my story of being afraid of Fahsteth._  He appeared to be right. Prosser didn’t give Flick so much as an odd glance as he strode to the metal plate-covered door. With a flick of his hand, enough metal disappeared to leave a doorway-shaped hole. The four of them looked through the door to see the teleporter and Fahsteth grabbing each other’s hands. They disappeared with a pop of energy that set Flick’s hair standing on end with static.  
  
“No!” Avalon yelled, darting into the room he’d disappeared from. She kicked the ground he’d been standing on, then turned back around, a clearly frustrated expression on her face.  
  
“It’s alright. I’m sure we wouldn’t have gotten much information out of him anyway,” Flick’s voice said.  
  
 _No, it’s not alright! Fahsteth tried to kill Avalon, and he was our best lead on you assholes!_  
  
 _Heh. Yeah. But it still_ sounds _like you’re trying to make her feel better._  
  
There was an extremely brief betrayed look on Avalon’s face before she visibly controlled her expression to something more blank. “Yeah. Just because he was our best--and only--source of information doesn’t make it the end of the world that he escaped,” she said bitingly. Then she exhaled, and her eyes seemed to soften. “Still, I’m glad you’re okay. I’d much rather he escape than you get hurt.” Flick felt an upwelling of warmth and embarrassment at the sentiment, as well as sorrow that Avalon was wrong--she wasn’t okay at all.  
  
 _Ugh. I really hate infiltration work. I greatly appreciate that I can just let your embarrassment shine through and don’t have to fake it myself._  
  
 _If you hate infiltration so much, why don’t you just wait until we can go someplace safe and then leave? I haven’t learned anything secret for you, and this wasn’t your mission. You won. You stopped us from talking to Fahsteth. Your job’s done, so why don’t you just go back to whatever you would normally be doing? It’s got to be safer than possessing me and risking Gaia finding you back at Crossroads._  
  
The external conversation fell into an awkward silence until Prosser informed the others that Seth and Shiori were waiting downstairs, having finished dealing with the predators Fahsteth summoned as a distraction as well as the two were-birds Lehahiah had sent to delay the Heretics. The three of them started walking downstairs in silence--Prosser thoughtful, Avalon seething, and Flick locked in an internal conversation.  
  
 _A tempting suggestion, but multiple Seosten have tried to possess you without success. It’s been a priority goal, and my standing will be dramatically improved now that I’ve managed something nobody else has._  There was a pause for a few seconds before Lehahiah started laughing mentally.  _Oh, this is delicious! You already know someone you trust is possessed, and you know Manakel’s in charge, because Charmeine fucked up! I can’t wait to tell Manakel about this! That will teach the bitch to be so confident in her superiority! AND you used what she said to deduce that you and your girlfriends are all immune. I’ll admit, I’m a little impressed._  
  
 _So what makes you so special that you can possess me when nobody else can?_  
  
 _Huh._  There was a pause as Lehahiah rifled through her memories.  _I was hoping...I mean, why would I tell you that?_  
  
 _You have no idea, do you?_  Flick’s mental “voice” was as dry as she could make it.  _Do you even know why I am immune to everyone else?_  
  
 _There’s no way I’m giving you such potentially critical information. It would be an unacceptable security risk for the unlikely event that you get free._  
  
 _So you don’t know. Got it. Hey, while we’re at it, why can’t Avalon be possessed?_  This time Lehahiah refused to reply.  _Hmm. I’m not sure if that’s a “I know and I’m not telling you” silence or if you’ve finally decided to stop playing along._ Lehahiah ignored her, focusing on searching through her memories, making sure he didn’t miss anything going on around him, and planning what to do next. He’d need to contact Manakel at the earliest opportunity to update him on the situation and request more detailed orders, but for the meantime he just needed to maintain his cover.  
  
“Heh, sucks he got away, but I still expect to be paid.” That was Seth’s predictable comment when Avalon, Prosser, and Lehahiah finished explaining what had happened upstairs.  
  
“Don’t worry, Gaia will get the rest of the money to you,” Lehahiah said. There were many strange things about pretending to be a teenage girl, but oddly enough, calling the Headmistress of Crossroads by her first name was one of the strangest. It felt like he was failing to take seriously a Heretic who had been a pain in the Seosten Empire’s side for hundreds of years longer than he had been alive.  
  
Seth said his nonchalant farewell and left. The rest of them stood in silence for a few seconds before Lehahiah spoke up. “Okay, well...I guess our best chance now is to get that choker and use it to figure out who they’re possessing.”  _Hah, and when we kill your werewolf friends and keep the choker, you’ll be out of luck!_  Flick didn’t intentionally direct any thoughts at him in response, but he knew what she was thinking anyway.  
  
 _We weren’t going to use the Atherby spell even once we learned it because it would alert all the Seosten on the island that we knew they were there. But now that I’ve been possessed, they already know we’re onto them, so we might as well go for it._  
  
 _Hah. Too bad for you your friends don’t know that!_  To Lehahiah’s satisfaction, he could feel Flick’s intense frustration at that, at least until she covered it up with some forced levity.  
  
 _So what you’re saying is we couldn’t use the spell before because we didn’t want you to know we knew about you, but even though I now know that you know that we know about you, they still can’t use the spell because they don’t know that we know?_  
  
 _Shut up_ , he replied, irritated. After a second, despite his irritation at himself for playing along, he just had to correct her.  _And you missed a “that you know.” **You**  said that your friends don’t know that you and your friends know about the Seosten. Which is just stupid._  
  
 _Oh, I know. I just wanted to see if I could force you to play along._  
  
 _ **I know you know!**  I can read your mind!_  
  
 _I knew you would know…_  
  
 _No. This conversation is over._  He determinedly tuned her out until she finally gave it up.  
  
Meanwhile, Prosser had dropped off the three girls on the opposite end of the island from the school. As they stood there, waiting for Virginia Dare to arrive and bring them back to Crossroads, Lehahiah briefly considered forgetting about stealth and calling in a team to kill Shiori and capture Avalon so they could wait until her defensive spells expired and kill her at their leisure. This was a rare moment when they were relatively unguarded. It didn’t take him long to decide not to be so reckless. Virginia Dare would be arriving any minute, and besides, he couldn’t call for a strike team secretly, and there was no guarantee he’d be able to get anyone to go along with his idea quickly enough for it to be worth doing. No, like in most of the Seosten operations on this planet, patience and subtlety would be key. Of course, this was really annoying for Lehahiah, who enjoyed that he was usually in charge of the less subtle operations.  
  
Eventually, Flick asked,  _Can I at least know the name of the shithead controlling my body like a puppet?_  
  
For a second, he considered withholding his name just to spite her for the insult, but he wasn’t Charmeine. And anyway, what could it hurt?  _Lehahiah. My name is Lehahiah._  
  
 _Leha then. I’d say nice to meet you, but it’s not. Not even a little._  
  
Lehahiah bristled at the dismissive nickname.  _I **cannot**  wait until you’re resigned enough to the situation to  **shut up**. And trust me, it  **will**  happen. There is  **nothing**  you can do to improve your situation, and you will realize your helplessness in time._ He could feel Flick’s despair as she finally allowed herself to fully process the terrible situation she was in, but it was coupled by an annoying amount of determination.  
  
 _Even if that day comes, it won’t be for a long time. And until then, you’ll just have to deal with me._


	3. Corruptor 1-03: False Witness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lehahiah and Flick return to Crossroads.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A significant portion of this chapter was taken, slightly modified, from Suspects 24-01, so credit to Cerulean for that. There was no particular reason to change a lot of it, but I wanted to include it so I could include Flick and Lehahiah’s mental conversation. I tried to summarize the parts they didn’t have anything to say about.
> 
> And yes, this story will be Tabbris PoV at some point in the future. I just need to figure out and then tell you guys what exactly is going on with Flick being possessed, and honestly, the easiest way to do that is to write it out.

“Good… morning, would be the appropriate term at this point, I believe,” Professor Virginia Dare stated flatly. “I’ve been told that where you were and what you were doing needs to remain a secret for the time being. Operational security.” She paused, clearly not happy about that.  
  
 _Was that actually necessary, or is she still free?_  Flick asked. Lehahiah elected to ignore her question as Dare continued,  
  
“But you do need to know what you were  _supposed_  to have been doing. So far as the Committee’s representatives and anyone who asks are concerned, you two-” she nodded to Avalon and Shiori, “–were asleep in your beds, where you belong. So we’ll send you right back there.”  
  
As they nodded, Lehahiah asked, “What about me? We were supposed to be out on a training session?”  
  
Professor Dare nodded. “You were with me. We were investigating a zombie nest in Detroit, where an old friend of mine has been staying. I took you with me because you have experience with killing zombies and for exercise and more training. We killed the zombies, then you watched for more outside while I destroyed the source. Do you have any questions?”  
  
After Lehahiah shook Flick’s head, Dare held up a water bottle that was full of a mixture of blood and mushed up… bits. “All right, squirt this over yourself. It’ll help sell that you were in a fight with zombies. And if you’re messy, they’re more likely to let you leave quickly, as soon as you tell them that you don’t know what happened to your father.”  
  
 _I’m glad you’re the one who has to feel that, not me,_  Lehahiah thought at Flick.  
  
Pausing then, Dare looked at Flick, her face softening as she held the bottle out. “Is he all right?”  
  
“He’s with Asenath and Twister, so he should be okay.”  _If I knew where exactly he was, that would be a different story._  
  
 _You stay the hell away from my dad!_  
  
 _I just said I don’t know where he is. Pay attention._  As they conversed, Lehahiah took the bottle of stuff and squirted it all over Flick’s body, letting Flick gag but controlling her stomach enough that she didn’t waste his time by throwing up. Shiori and Avalon took a couple of steps back and made expressions of disgust.  
  
“I’ll just wish you luck from over here,” Shiori said.  
  
Dare was smiling faintly, head shaking as she gestured to the other two. “All right, if you’re ready, I’ll send the message to lower the defenses so that you can get back into your dorm.” She waited until they nodded before turning away slightly. Going still, her eyes closed and she was clearly focusing for a moment before opening her eyes. “Okay, I’m sending you in. Make sure you go right to bed. There’s not much of the night left. Get as much sleep as you can.”  
  
With that, she gestured, teleporting Avalon and Shiori across the island and into the school. Which left her alone with Flick and Lehahiah.  _If she is possessed, now would be the perfect time for Leha to report that he’s possessed me,_  Flick thought to herself.  _Except he’s been avoiding telling me who else is possessed. But does he care about secrecy enough to miss his first convenient opportunity to report?_  
  
 _I can hear you, you know._  Flick caught a sense of amusement from her captor.  
  
 _Well I’m not just going to stop thinking just because you can hear my thoughts._  This time she intentionally directed the thought his way.  
  
 _It would make my life a lot more pleasant if you did._  
  
“Flick?” Dare interrupted their thoughts, raising an eyebrow. “Are you sure you’re okay?”  
  
 _No, I’m not!_  Flick was practically screaming inside her own head, trying her hardest to reply to Dare’s question--but just like when Avalon asked her the same thing, she was prevented from answering truthfully.  
  
“Yeah, I’m okay,” Lehahiah said, letting out a slight sigh. “I just feel guilty that Fahsteth got away before we could get any information from him. Avalon was so disappointed, and it was my fault.”  
  
 _Yes, it is your fault, but no, you definitely don’t feel guilty for it!_ Lehahiah didn’t send any thoughts in reply, but he did allow Flick to feel his smugness as he continued.  
  
“If I hadn’t panicked and run away when I saw all the Alters he killed, I might have been able to get him to talk to me.”  
  
Dare’s face was sympathetic. “I know it’s disappointing. Trust me, I have had plenty of enemies escape in my life, and it’s frustrating every time. But the important thing is that you escaped. You’re free to fight another day, but also your safety is a worthwhile goal in its own sake. Never doubt that.”  
  
 _Hah. Free_ , Lehahiah thought.  _It’s simply wonderful how all your friends almost seem to be taunting you._  “I am glad I got out of there alright, but...it’s frustrating.”  
  
“Unfortunately, while you may be safe from physical threats at the present, it’s time to go speak to the Committee’s representatives. Gaia and I will be there in person, and we’ll make sure they can’t detect any lies that you tell. Are you ready?”  
  
Flick’s thoughts took a turn towards panic.  _What’s he going to tell them? What if he doesn’t stick to the cover story? He could ruin everything if he exposes me! Shit, no, shouldn’t give him any ideas._  
  
Lehahiah took a couple seconds to consider the question before answering, “Yes, I’m ready. Let’s get this over with.” Dare waved her hand, and they appeared on the grounds in the school, right in front of the main building. Dare gestured that Flick should go ahead, then followed as she walked up to the doors and into the building. Meanwhile, Flick was scrambling to convince Lehahiah to maintain her cover.  
  
 _Come on, there’s got to be something I can use to convince you. Hmm….oh, Charmeine said her host is someone I trust, which means she already knows enough to expose us if she wanted to. You made it sound like she was your superior, or at least higher-ranking than you, so if she hasn’t exposed us yet, you definitely aren’t allowed to._  If Flick had been able to say it out loud, she might have been able to convince a listener she was confident in her argument, but with his direct line into her brain, Lehahiah could clearly tell that she was frantically thinking of the first argument she could. Unfortunately, she was right, at least until he could get new orders. It was possible that they had only been waiting for some leverage on Flick. He considered saying nothing to allow her to continue to frantically scramble for an argument that would convince him, but decided it would be less annoying if he just shut her up now.  
  
 _Yes, you got it. Now quiet. If you want to keep from being exposed, shut up and let me think._  He could tell when the possibility of doing the opposite--trying to somehow fool him into drawing more scrutiny in the hopes that he would be discovered--crossed her mind, but she predictably decided not to put her friends in danger. Her loyalty was admirable--not that he was going to tell her that, of course. Maybe he could save the praise as a reward for good behavior in the future.  
  
Meanwhile, they’d walked to the second floor of the main building, to a room with Gaia and two Committee representatives. “Miss Chambers,” Gaia greeted while gesturing for them to enter the room. “I trust you’re alright and everything went well?”  
  
 _Goddamnit, why does everyone keep asking that?_  
  
“Yep, I’m good. The zombies were no problem, especially with Professor Dare with me.”  
  
“Glad to hear it. This is a dangerous profession, but I’d hate to hear a first-year student was being put in unnecessary danger,” the more laid-back-looking of the Committee representatives said with a slight smile.  
  
 _So is he possessed and playing along with you fucking with me, or was that a jibe at the professors?_  Lehahiah didn’t waste the time to remind her that none of the other Seosten knew she was possessed at the moment.  
  
“Sorry,” the same representative said, extending a hand. “Name’s October. And you’re Felicity Chambers.”  
  
“Yep, that’s me. Flick Chambers, in the flesh,” Lehahiah said with a smile. The hint of mental laughter he let filter down to Flick showed the irony was not lost on him.  
  
The other representative introduced himself as Patrick and handed Flick a fancy embroidered white handkerchief with a cleaning spell, which Lehahiah used to remove most of the disgusting blood and guts from his host body. Then it was time for the questioning.  
  
“How long has it been since you heard from your father?” Gaia asked.  
  
“Hey, whoa, let’s be a little easier, huh?” October said, eyes soft. “Listen, kid, there’s-” He paused, and Lehahiah mentally rolled his eyes at the consideration. “It looks like your father was...it looks like your home was attacked by werewolves.”  
  
Lehahiah made a look of shock come over Flick’s face. “W-what? What happened? Why would werewolves attack him? Why-where’s my dad? Is he okay?”  
  
 _Okay, that wasn’t any worse than I would have done, Flick begrudgingly admitted to herself._  The worrying part was that Lehahiah had clearly gone through enough of her memories at this point to know what little she knew about the situation with her father  **and**  how she’d react to being asked about it. Which was to say, he knew she would have pretended to be worried, and so he must have seen enough of her memories to see how she acted when worried.  
  
“We don’t know,” Patrick replied. “That’s why we’re here right now. Why don’t you answer your headmistress’s question? When exactly was the last time you spoke to your father?”  
  
“The other day,” Lehahiah replied immediately. Then he paused in confusion as he considered the question (and tried to ignore Flick berating him for replying too quickly.  _In a human, that sounds like an obviously rehearsed lie! We don’t have perfect memory!_ ) “But what does that have to do with werewolves? Or how he got away?”  
  
Patrick frowned, brow creased in what Lehahiah and Flick both hoped wasn’t suspicion. “Why do you think he got away? We just told you we don’t know what happened to him. Has he contacted you tonight?”  
  
Lehahiah scrambled to explain his mistake. “I...well...I figured if he’d died, you would have found a body, so if you didn’t, he must have gotten away, right? Unless...oh, God, they didn’t eat him, did they?”  
  
Even knowing it hadn’t happened, Flick found the image appearing clearly in her mind: her father torn apart by wolves. In her mental image, one wolf grabbed hold of his left leg. A second bit into his right arm, and they started pulling. Meanwhile, a third wolf that seemed familiar somehow bit into his stomach. Flick felt nauseous, and she very nearly threw up.  
  
Patrick still looked suspicious, but October seemed to be affected by the genuine horror and worry Lehahiah allowed to leak through from Flick. “As far as we can tell, your father is safe. There’s evidence that he left the house, took a car, and drove to another house elsewhere in the town. After that, we think he took a car that was parked there and left town. From there, we have no idea. But all the evidence we have indicates that all the werewolves who showed up there were killed in the attempt. Then your dad left, probably with whoever was responsible for killing them.”  
  
“But...but who killed them? If someone’s trying to keep him safe, why don’t we know about it? Why wouldn’t they just tell you?”  
  
“You’re sure nobody contacted you about this?” Patrick questioned pointedly.  
  
“Contacted me...what, you think they’ve kidnapped him and are trying to ransom him back to me?”  
  
“It’s one possibility we’re considering, among others,” Patrick replied.  
  
“No, no, I swear, I haven’t spoken to him tonight. Nobody told me anything about any of this before you just now.”  _All true._  
  
 _Make a show of calling him. Leave a few voicemails; break down a little_ , Flick suggested.  
  
“I…”  _Not a bad idea._  Lehahiah grabbed Flick’s regular, non-secret phone from her pocket and hit the button to speed-dial Lincoln Chambers’s phone. Of course, since he would’ve been an idiot not to ditch the phone already to keep it from being traced, he didn’t pick up. As it went through to voicemail, Lehahiah left a quick message asking Lincoln to call him back, then tried again two more times, Flick encouraging him to be more emotional each time.  
  
 _Would you really show this much weakness? I know you humans care about your families to a sickening degree, but its embarrassing acting like this._  
  
 _I’m supposed to be a teenager whose remaining close parent just got attacked by werewolves and then went missing! Of course I’d be distraught!_  
  
 _Hmph. This would never stand in Seosten society. So undisciplined. Parents raising their own children is such an idiotic source of weakness._  
  
 _You mean...you steal children from their parents?_  Flick’s thoughts were tinted with horror and, disturbingly, a bit of pity. Lehahiah tuned both out and focused on what October was saying.  
  
“Hey, hey, it’s okay. Look, I’m sorry we had to tell you like this. But even if we don’t know who killed the werewolves, it’s a good sign that they saved him, right?”  
  
“I-I still...who saved him?”  
  
Patrick started to answer that before pausing as a phone in his suit pocket buzzed. Holding up a finger, he asked the rest of them to excuse him while he stepped to the other side of the room to answer it. His voice was a quiet murmur for a moment before he did something that cut off the sound entirely, leaving them unable to hear what either he or whoever was on the phone was saying.  
  
October gave his partner a brief look before speaking again. “Whoever killed the werewolves was probably a Heretic, of course. But they weren’t one of ours. They weren’t from Crossroads. It’s possible that they were from Eden’s Garden, or from a...an independent faction.”  
  
Lehahiah made Flick’s eyes widen and shook her head. “But...why would Eden’s Garden be watching my house? Or did they just happen to be there when werewolves were attacking?  _Why? And...what do you mean, independent faction? What independent faction is there that would care about my father?”_  
  
 _Wow, you barely know about any of the factions. I’ll have to be careful not to appear less ignorant than you._  
  
 _Hey, I’m doing my best to figure out what’s going on, but this world is insane, and we don’t all have a perfect memory._  
  
The question appeared to have made October uncomfortable. He went on to explain that sometimes Crossroads, Eden’s Garden, or independent Heretic factions would poach Bystander family members of high-potential Heretic recruits from the other organizations. It would fit with the evidence for this to have been what happened to Flick’s dad. Gaia explained that their contacts with Eden’s Garden would try to find out if the other school had recruited him, but that the tribes were fractious and secretive, so it might not pan out. Then, October again tried to reassure Flick that her father was probably okay. “Just...give it a little time. If your dad calls you, let us know, okay? It could be Eden’s Garden that saved him, or it could be an independent.”  
  
“Or maybe,” Patrick abruptly announced while hanging up his phone, “it was someone else.”  
  
Gaia raised an eyebrow at that, asking, “Did you have someone in mind?”  
  
Patrick nodded once before looking straight at Flick. “Maybe it was the same woman who just killed eleven of our people.” As Lehahiah stared at him in genuine confusion, he went on, “A woman who could take on twelve fully-trained Heretics who were in the middle of a mission to clear out a nest of Strangers, killed eleven of them all by herself, and let one go. A female Heretic with a golden kill-aura, like yours. You know anyone who fits that description, Miss Chambers?”


End file.
